1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and formulations for forming low density products and particularly, method and formulations for forming synthetic, expanded microparticles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Cenospheres are spherical inorganic hollow microparticles (microspheres) found in fly ash, which is produced as a by-product in coal-fired power stations. Cenospheres typically make up around 1-2% of the fly ash and “harvested” cenospheres are widely commercially available. The composition, form, size, shape and density of cenospheres provide particular benefits in the formulation and manufacture of many low-density products.
One of the characterizing features of cenospheres is their exceptionally high chemical durability. This exceptionally high chemical durability is understood to be due to the very low content of alkali metal oxides, particularly sodium oxide, in their composition. Accordingly, low-density composites produced from harvested cenospheres have the desirable properties of high strength to weight ratio and chemical inertness. Chemical inertness is especially important in Portland cement applications, where relative chemical inertness plays an important role in achieving highly durable cementitious products. Thus, harvested cenospheres have proven to be especially useful in building products and in general applications where they may come into contact with corrosive environments.
Despite the known utility of harvested cenospheres, their widespread use has been limited to a large extent by their cost and availability. The recovery of cenospheres in large quantities from fly ash is a labour intensive and expensive process. Although it is possible to increase the recovery of cenospheres from fly ash by modifying the collection process, the cost of improved recovery does not make this economically viable.
It may also be possible to alter combustion conditions in power stations to increase the yield of cenospheres in fly ash. However, combustion conditions in power stations are optimised for coal-burning rather than cenosphere production, and it is not economically viable to increase the yield of cenosphere production at the expense of coal-burning efficiency.
Several methods for producing microspheres are described in the prior art. An early method for manufacturing hollow glass microspheres involved combining sodium silicate and borax with a suitable foaming agent, drying and crushing the mixture, adjusting the size of the crushed particles and subsequently firing the particles. However, this method suffers from the use of expensive starting materials (e.g. borax). Hence, the resulting microspheres are necessarily expensive. In addition, the product has poor chemical durability due to a high percentage of sodium oxide in the resulting glass composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,365,315 describes a method of producing glass microspheres from glass beads by heating in the presence of water vapour at a temperature of about 1200° C. This method requires the exclusive use of pre-formed amorphous glasses as the starting raw materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,978,340 describes a method of forming glass microspheres from discrete, solid particles consisting essentially of an alkali metal silicate. The microspheres are formed by heating the alkali metal silicate at a temperature in the range of 1000-2500° F. in the presence of a gasifying agent, such as urea or Na2CO3.
US Patent Application No. 2001/0043996 (equivalent of EP-A-1156021) describes a spray combustion process for forming hollow microspheres having a diameter of from 1 to 20 microns. However, this process is unsuitable for making hollow microspheres having a diameter similar to that of known cenospheres (i.e. about 200 microns). In spray combustion processes, rapid steam explosion ruptures larger particles, thereby preventing formation of hollow microspheres greater than about 20 microns in diameter.
US Patent Application No. 2002/0025436 describes a process for forming solid microspheres from fly ash. The process is said to improve the spheroidal uniformity of fly ash particles and provides fly ash spheroids having a density of about 1.8 g/cm3.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,788 discloses a method of using two blowing agents activated at different temperatures to make large, foam glass granules greater than 1 mm in diameter. However, the blowing agents discussed therein are limited to the blowing agents discussed therein are limited to one of the two agents must be an oxygen generating agent.
Generally speaking, prior art methods for forming engineered expanded microparticles involve firing an inorganic material in the presence of a blowing, gasifying or foaming agent. Such blowing, gasifying or foaming agents are typically activated when the material from which the microparticle is produced is in an appropriate form, such as liquid. However, it is sometimes extremely difficult to match the blowing agent with the material from which the microparticle will be formed and using the blowing agent in the most efficient manner.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to have a system which allows a greater degree of control over the process of forming engineered expanded microparticles. It is an object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative.